Duke dashed out of the gate over the weekend, running circles around Denver and No. 11 Vanderbilt to start the year with two wins.
On Sunday, the Blue Devils (2-0) faced a tough test in Nashville against the Commodores (0-1). Even though Vanderbilt lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season, Duke’s most recent loss to the Commodores came only two years ago in its final regular season game.
The Blue Devil offense was led by Virginia Crotty and Kat Thomas, who each netted four goals en route to a 19-10 victory. Duke outshot Vanderbilt 39-24 and never trailed in the contest, holding the Commodores scoreless for the final 13 minutes. Sophomore goalie Mollie Mackler added nine saves on the day to keep what head coach Kerstin Kimel called a “prolific” offense in check.
“Overall, I’m really happy,” co-captain Sarah Bullard said. “That was a great way to open the season, set a good tone.”
The win over Vanderbilt built on a dominating performance against Denver in the first game of the weekend. On Friday, the No. 5 Blue Devils played staunch defense, forcing 26 Pioneer turnovers to win 16-6.
Bullard and fellow co-captain Lindsay Gilbride paced the Blue Devils on offense against the Pioneers (1-2), scoring four and two goals, respectively. Eight more Duke players found the back of the net, including freshman Monica DeMairo, who earned her first career goal.
“We know there are a lot of kids on the field who can score for us—I guess I’m just pleased that we had so many people wind up in the scoring column tonight,” Kimel said. “With a younger group, you kind of roll the ball out and see how we do and you’re not always sure what you can expect, but I was really pleased with how they did tonight.”
Early in the game, Denver did all it could to keep pace with the hard-charging Blue Devils, cutting short Duke scoring runs to keep the deficit at three after the first 14 minutes. The Pioneers were anchored by several point-blank saves by goalie Ashley Harman that kept the Blue Devils from turning a huge possession advantage into an equally large lead.
“Our offensive unit is actually a little less experienced than our defensive unit,” Kimel said. “The only thing I would have liked to have seen us be able to do better is capitalize better on those turnovers.”
The second half saw extended possessions from the Duke attack as the team practiced different offensive sets. Defensively, the Blue Devils were just as effective at hounding Denver, frustrating the Pioneers into bad passes and poor shots.
“Our goal was to keep them to six goals or under on defense,” Bullard said. “We were all over them defensively and made them cough up the ball a lot.”
Although Duke earned success this weekend with relentless abandon in all facets of the game, Gilbride warned against relying on that style of play in the future.
“Our team totally has a lot of potential, but we just saw spurts of so much energy and excitement on the field,” Gilbride said. “For me, it’s just about patience, and it’s all going to come together.”
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